Walking - Defend yourself against breast cancer and depression
Worried about your odds of developing breast cancer?
Increase your peace of mind by walking regularly. Indeed, daily walking can keep cancer at bay, so it seems. The latest evidence also suggests that it can help keep it from recurring if you?ve already developed it once.
That?s the view of Michelle Homes, the lead author of a recent study from the Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women?s Hospital in Boston. In fact, she says that ?women with breast cancer . . . have much to gain from exercise.?
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These statements are the result of a study evaluating women who have been treated for breast cancer ? ranging from stage one to stage three. These women were all treated with the conventional methods: surgery, radiation, chemotherapy and tamoxifen.
The researchers questioned these females about their level of physical activity. They discovered that those who walked about three to five hours weekly at a pace of two to three miles an hour possessed the lowest risk of dying from breast cancer.
Additionally, those women who walked only once a week at a similar pace actually were at a lower risk than those who walked less than an hour. Surprisingly, though, the participants who said they exercised more than five times a week didn?t experience as much protection as those who only walked three to five hours.
It was the follow-up examination 10 years after the initial research that truly surprised the researchers. After a decade, 92 percent of those women who consistently exercised three to five hours every week were still living. This compares to only 86 percent of those who walked less than an hour a week.
But wait! There?s more good news. You don?t have to do your 30 minutes of walking in one long sprint. The benefits are the same if you take several shorter walks throughout the day. That?s great news for folks were are out of shape, don?t have the time, or who are dealing with certain physical problems which make walking long distances difficult.
Depressed? Not feeling like emerging from the safety of your home?
Don?t let that stop you from walking. In fact, that?s all the more reason why you should be tying up the laces of those walking shoes and getting out of the house.
Research shows that walking is just as effective ? if not more so ? than prescription anti-depressants. That?s the finding of a recent Duke University study. And there?s a bonus associated with walking as well. It carries no negative side effects like many of the prescription anti-depressant medications do.
So just how much should you walk to beat depression? You?ve guessed it ? three times a week.
These statements are based on a study which evaluated 156 patients. Each of these individuals had been diagnosed with a major depressive disorder. They were divided into three groups. The first group was given medication only. The second group was ?prescribed? a walking regimen. The third group was given both, the walking instructions as well as medications.
The study followed these people for 16 weeks. At the end of this period, all three groups experienced statistically significant and similar improvement.
Writing in the Archives of Internal Medicine, the researchers found that exercise may be just as effective as prescription medication at relieving the symptoms of depression.
Walking works these wonders by producing greater levels of endorphins in your system. Endorphins are natural mood-boosting substances that are often associated with the ?runner?s high.? They are also a natural pain killer.
But another, overlooked, reason for the improvement in mood, the study concluded was the camaraderie that very often accompanied a group of persons walking together.
